1997-03-31; Central Michigan Life

              Central Michigan LIFE
Volume 79, Number 74
Mt. Pleasant,  MI 48859
©1997 CM LIFE
77 years of serving the community
MONDAY
March 31, 1997
14 pages
Students elect new SGA officers; $5 levy doubles
By Jeremy Russ
LIFE Staff Writer	
Miller, Gapczynski and Cone will run
Student Government Association next
year and the student levy will increase
by $5.
Adam Miller, Paw Paw junior, is next
year's SGA president.
Molly Duggan, assistant director of
Student Life, said a total of 1,107 voter
cards were counted.
Miller's ticket received over 700 votes.
Lacy Gapczynski, Clinton Township
freshman, is next year's vice president
and Jim Cone, Laurium junior, will
serve as treasurer.
Miller said his first order of business
is to begin educating students on the
issues pertaining to them.
He said he will do this by implementing a SGA monthly newsletter to keep
students informed about what SGA is
doing.
"I will begin to outreach to the students and get ideas on issues right
away," Miller said.
Cone said the public relations committee of SGA will organize the newsletter, but the executive board will have a
lot of say in how it looks.
Miller said to further the voice of students, he will stay in  Mount Pleasant
over the summer.
"Major decisions made over the summer will be handled by myself or the e-
board," he said.
Miller said he believes trfe new e-
board will have an excellent amount of
communication with the university
administration.
He added, even though he is a member of a Greek organization, he will not
be giving the Greek organizations any
special treatment and he will be fair
and supportive of all students.
"I have been a Greek for only a year,"
he said.
By not rushing until he had spent two
years at the university, Miller said, he
feels he was the best candidate for the
presidential position in SGA, because
he was involved in both sides of the
issue.
Andrew Devenney, Marshall junior
who ran opposite Miller said he will, if
possible, remain in SGA but he has no
idea what position he will be in.
Devenney said he wishes next year's
leadership the best of luck and hopes
Miller and the rest of his ticket are "as
competent as they make themselves
appear to be and know the difference
between campaigning for students and
leading for students."
Sarah Blink, Muskegon junior and
treasurer candidate running against
Cone, said she will hopefully stay on as
a senator and continue to be active in
committees.
"I hope the new e-board doesn't
become too political and I hope it stays
for the students," Blink said.
The student levy passed with over 700
votes.
Pending approval from the Board of
Trustees, the student levy will increase
from $5 to $10 per semester next year.
All five candidates who ran for SGA
senate seats were elected. They all ran
unopposed.
Charter
School
loses
Curtiss
By Liz Wishaw
LIFE Assistant News Editor	
Another desk wall be vacated in
the Charter Schools Office this
year.
Bruce Curtiss, oversight administrator for Charter Schools, will
be vacating his position on or
before May 15. He has accepted a
business manager position with
Newaygo County Intermediate
School District.
Curtiss said this is a step forward for him.
"It was a difficult decision to
make," he said. "I have two
degrees from here and been here a
long time. It was too good of an
opportunity to pass up."
Curtiss worked in the Charter
Schools Office for a year, after
■working for three years as an
accountant in the general accounting department.
Bob Mills, director of Charter
Schools, said the move is a wonderful opportunity of career
advancement for Curtiss.
"I am experiencing excitement
and regret about his leaving,"
Mills  said.
Mills said immediate advertising has begun for replacing
Curtiss.
"We hope to hire someone while
Bruce is still here to work with
them before he leaves," Mills said
regarding training and learning at
the office.
Mills said he wishes Curtiss the
best.
"I am sorry to lose him," Mills
said. Mills describe Curtiss as a
"key anchor" in the Charter
Schools Office.
"But I understand that quality
people are very marketable," Mills
said.
This summer Mills will be
vacating his spot as director to
return to teaching in the classroom.
Screenings for the position will
begin Friday and continue until
filled.
LIFE Photos/Ryan Wood
HEARING
AWARENESS
Communications disorder class 764,
"Aural Rehabilitation for Adults" is
conducting a learning project.The
project focuses attention on a program designed to educate and
inform the public on hearing disabilities, (above) Jennifer Schlaud,
Lapeer Graduate student, (left) Kerri
Branham, Ohio graduate student,
and Lauren Balling, Mount Pleasant
graduate student are involved in the
program.
See page 14 for additional article on
the program.
FAFSA link
— same as
paper only
quicker
By Jeremy H. Dickman
LIFE Staff Writer	
For students who have
not completed their
financial aid application
in time for the priority deadline,
there is electronic help on the
World Wide Web.
The Free Application for
Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is
now available for students to
download through the U.S.
Department of Education at
WWW.ED.GOV/OFFICES/OPE/
EXPRESS.HTML, said
spokesperson Stephanie
Babyak.
According to Babyak, the
FAFSA Express service is the
same for students as the paper
application, only faster.
With FAFSA Express students
enter the same information as
on the paper version, Babyak
said. FAFSA Express also lets
students save the application to
a disk so the students do not
have to complete the entire
application at once.
One nice feature of the
FAFSA Express process is the
automatic editing, Babyak said.
This feature allows corrections
more quickly.
With the automatic editing ,
FAFSA Express will routinely
check over the users information for errors and note any possible mistakes, Babyak said.
This helps ensure the most
accurate information is
processed.
Another feature of using
FAFSA Express is the reduction
in processing errors since the
information is entered directly
by the applicant and not from a
worker, which cuts down on the
chance the information will be
read wrong, Babyak said.
FAFSA Express is going on its
second year of availability,
Babyak said.
Since January 1997, 65,000
users have accessed FAFSA
Express, Babyak said.
FAFSA Express also processes
See INTERNET Page 2	
About 3,000 people expected at Powwow
By Carol L. Marshall
LIFE Staff Writer
About 3,000 to 4,000 people are
expected to attend the 9th
Annual CMU Powwow at the end
of the week.
Drummers, dancers, arts and
crafts traders and food vendors
will be featured during the event
Saturday and Sunday in Finch
Fieldhouse.
Martin Reinhardt, director of
Native American Programs, said
the reason for hosting the
Powwow is to educate people and
offer a fun and exciting event for
the whole community.
"Traditionally, our people
would come together to trade,
make trade alliances and visit
people they hadn't seen all winter," Reinhardt said.
He said traditionally the
Powwow has also been a chance
to meet with spiritual leaders,
perform spiritual ceremonies and
burials or to find a mate.
"It's a great time for Native
Americans to get together with
other Native Americans and
socialize," he said.
Reinhardt "■ «
said he could      "Traditionally,
Anyone interested should call
Native American Programs at
774-2508.
The event will feature a dance
■—————■— competition     on
OUT    Saturday    night
WOuld -    after 7 p.m. First
come
still use a lot of    .-v^^-^l^
volunteers    to    P^Opie       w ^^      v.«.»v.     prize     wij,      be
help        with   together to trade, make   $300,      second
booth set up,   trade alliances and visit   Prize   wiU    be
people     they     hadn't
seen all winter/'
monitoring the
doors, tear
down and
clean up.
Volunteers
would        work
two    shifts    of
two hours and   """""^""""""
will   receive  a   Powwow   T-shirt,
access to the Powwow and will be
able    to    eat   at    the    feast    for
Powwow participants on
Saturday night.
There will be a volunteer training session at 4 p.m. Thursday in
the    Bovee   University    Center.
$200
MARTIN REINHARDT,
director of Native American
Programs
and third
prize will be
$100. All other
dancers are noncompetitive.
Reinhardt said
the reason for
hosting competitive and non-competitive dancers
is that some people in the Native
American community feel competition can help make better
dancers and some feel that dancing should not be rewarded with
money.
The   nine  groups  with   drums
who  have  traveled  the  furthest
will receive $200 each.
Drums and dancers need to
register in person at the door
prior to the first Grand Entry at 1
p.m. Saturday.
The theme of the event is
"Honor Our People: Past,
Present, Future."
The Powwow is sponsored by
the North American Indian
Student Organization, CMU, the
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe
and the City of Mount Pleasant.
Doors open at 11 a.m. both days
and the Grand Entry is scheduled
for 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday
and 1 p.m. Sunday.
Admission costs are $10 for a
weekend pass; $7 for a daily pass;
$3 for non-CMU students; CMU
students with ID, persons older
than 50 and children under five
are free.
For more information, call the
Office of Minority Affairs at 774-
3945 or Native American
Programs at 774-2508.
Kirkp a trick's parents
file civil lawsuit
By Jennifer Ackerman
LIFE Editor
A civil suit has been filed by the parents of Michael
Kirkpatrick, former CMU Rochester senior who was killed in a
car accident Oct. 31.
Jerry and Cheryl Kirkpatrick confirmed Sunday evening that
they authorized their attorney to file a civil suit against Ronald
S. Ziemba, Ronald T Ziemba, Sheila Ziemba, Richli, Inc., and
Richard Swindlehurst, owner of The Shaboom Pub Club, 106
Court St.
"It's sort of like the Goldmans and Browns in the Simpson case
— it's not about money," Jerry said. "I don't want to see his life
go for nothing. I don't want to let up until Michael gets some
kind of retribution.
"If the guy would own up to his guilt, I wouldn't bother him,"
he said.
Ronald Ziemba, 20-year-old Troy resident and former CMU
sophomore, declined comment Sunday night from his home in
Troy. "I'm not going to comment on anything because I don't
know what's going on," Ziemba said. "I have no comment."
Ziemba  was the driver of the  Dodge  Ram  that struck the
See LAWSUIT Page 7